"Mom, please, not this again." Nana whined softly.
"What do you mean? You're over thirty now! How long will you stay single? Will you not get married until you die?! Are you crazy? I'm tired hearing people talk about you! Your sister is having her second child now, what about you, then?" A round of fierce scolding could be heard through the speaker. With how loud her mother's voice was, it was no wonder Wira could hear her even when he was sitting across her.
Nana winched slightly at how fierce her mother scolded her. A sense of shame slowly filled her heart as soon as she realized Wira could hear her mother's voice. She mouthed 'sorry' at him and lowered the volume of her phone.
Wira shook his head with a gentle smile on his lips. He then pretended not to hear anything as he lowered his head to focus on his phone. The round of scolding had not ended and each words entered his ears one after another. Even after Nana had lowered the volume down, he could still hear it every word.
Her mother has not changed, he sighed inwardly. As one of the closest person to Nana, Wira surely knew one or two things about Nana's family. Nana always seemed reluctant to talk about her family when they dated back then, but Wira did what he could do. He talked to her best friends and heard some stories about his girlfriend's family. He made sure to make her comfortable enough around him so that she could open up to him. It took time and great patience, but he had all of those, so slowly his effort showed some results.
Nana was a good kid. She always tried to be a good child for her parents no matter how hurt she was from their words. Her sister was the younger version of her mother; another bully in the house; and her younger brother was the apple of her parents' eyes. Every good things went either to her older sister or to her younger brother. She would get one only if there were more or if the sister or brother didn't like it. She was required to obey her older sister because she was the younger one, yet she needed to show love and indulge her younger brother because she was the older one. What she wanted didn't matter in the eyes of her parents. What matters was her older sister's words and her younger brother's wants.
Even so, she didn't dare to voice out her grief of being treated unfair. She endured for years and she still kept being a good child of the house. No matter how unfair her parents were, she would always do her best to satisfy their needs. She would obey their demands, as long as it was still within her ability. She was always respectful to her parents even when she didn't want to do so.
Wira was sure that it wasn't all. All things that he knew about her was just a small portion of what she felt through the years. Even what her friends knew about her was surely just the tip of the iceberg.
However, compared to when he was still dating Nana, the current Nana was calmer. She didn't show painful expression anymore. She looked like was unbothered with all the scolding. She even smiled apologetically at him. But, the way the light in her eyes dimmed slightly when her mother started scolding and comparing her with her sister didn't go unnoticed by him. The way she replied to her mother had even changed. She was still answering softly, but people who knew her would notice the coldness in her voice.
"Um. I know. Yes, I hear you. I know." Wira watched as the girl wiped two pairs of spoons and forks with a tissue and handed one pair to him casually. It was just a small gesture but it warmed his heart.
Seconds later, their food arrived and she still had not finished talking to her mother. Wira took her bowl of chicken porridge and took most of the scallion and nuts from it and put them in his own bowl. Then, he put a little chili on top of the shredded chicken and mixed them up. She liked it like that! Her taste didn't change much.
After that, he put her bowl in front of her, attracting her attention and getting a 'thank you' from her. Wira smiled and poured a glass of water for her and put it next to her bowl. Again, she mouthed a silent 'thank you' for him.
After taking care of her, he took his own bowl and poured himself a glass of water. Everything was done so smoothly as if they had not been separated for years. It reminded him of when the both of them was in college and had been taking care of each other.
"Okay, Mom." That was what her last words to her mom before her mother hung up. Nana took a deep breath and adjusted her mood quickly.
"Ah, sorry about that." She smiled apologetically at him again.
"Did your mother pressure you again to get married?"
Nana bit her lips lightly and nodded. "Well, I'm already over thirty and haven't get married, of course she would be anxious." She let out bitter laugh as her hands mixed her porridge mindlessly.
Wira was quiet for a second, weighing the pros and cons of what he was about to ask. In the end, he swallowed the questions and said, "Eat up. It won't feel good if it's cold."
Nana knew that he still had something to ask but she appreciated that he could hold back and choose not to ask her whatever questions he had in mind.
It was not the first time her mother had pressured her to get married. Her sister got married when she was 29 years old and had been in a not-so-happy marriage for five years. It wasn't a happy marriage yet she still survived because she preferred to live a life of a married woman even when she wasn't that happy than to live a life where she would be annoyed with the same question. After all, whenever she got into an argument with her husband, she would come back home and demanded justice from their mother.
But, that wasn't all. Her sister would vent all her resentment from her husband to her as the younger sister. She would abuse her position as an older sister and order Nana around to her heart content. It was to the point that she didn't care that Nana almost lost her job. Nana couldn't retaliate or even start a mere verbal argument to defend herself. If she ignored her sister's request or order, her sister would slander her. Her mother would always side with her sister and scolded her. In her mother's eyes, she was an ignorant and barbaric child who disrespected the older and heartless towards the younger.
That was why she longed to get out of home and found her own place. She couldn't do anything to her own family. She could only try to find a way to get away from them without telling them personally that it was detrimental for her mental health to stay with them any longer. She would get out of the house and stop contacting them again.
After all, there was nothing that could hold her back anymore. Her younger brother had grown up. She could finally start to think about herself for real, and the start line was when she went to vacation without telling her family. Getting a job transfer worked in her favor, too. Even when she was still harassed with the phone calls, at least she didn't need to face them.
She just need to endure this pressure for a bit longer, then she would be free...